A variety of mobile computing devices exist, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, digital cameras, digital players, mobile terminal, and the like, which can perform various functions specific to the device. As the complexity of these mobile devices increases, it is becoming more desirable to provide communication between these devices and with other devices. The trend is for mobile devices to have combined functionality such that a single mobile device may, for example, provide Internet access, maintain a personal calendar, provide mobile telephony, and take digital photographs. Memory size, however, is typically limited on mobile devices and may become increasingly scarce as their functionality expands. One approach to managing memory constraints on mobile devices is to transfer files to another devices, such as a personal computer or dedicated storage equipment.
A user ID and password may be used to secure files stored on the personal computer or dedicated storage equipment such that only certain users may access certain files using a mobile device. However, a problem may arise where the user has forgotten his or her user ID or password. This can be especially problematic in a family server network environment that serves a plurality of accounts for each of a number of mobile users, none of whom have full administrative access to the server. In such an environment, there has been no secure way of allowing a user who has forgotten his or her user ID or password access to secure files. Nor has there been provided a secure way of allowing such a user the ability to determine or change his or her user ID or password without providing the existing user ID and password.